


A Lie and Two Truths

by AZGirl



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s03e10 The Long Way Home, Friendship, Gen, Warning: Mentions of Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts, episode tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-28 22:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30146577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AZGirl/pseuds/AZGirl
Summary: “For a minute there, I had no idea what to say to him… And then Aarash came to mind.”  Episode tags to 3.10 The Long Way Home.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27





	1. The Lie

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with three different ideas for how this story could go, couldn’t decide between them, and then ended up writing something for each of them. Each chapter is its own tag to the episode. They all start the same, but then follow a different trajectory to the end. Spoilers for if you haven't seen the episode yet.
> 
> **Warning** Mentions of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

**ooooooo**

"Some of the darkest days over there in that POW camp when I thought I wouldn't make it, what gave me hope was knowing that Aarash was spared." 

~~~~~ Thomas Magnum, 3.10 "The Long Way Home."

**ooooooo**

**Chapter One: The Lie**

When Magnum stepped back from the hug he'd shared with Liam, he said, "Are you ready to go home?"

Liam hesitated for only a moment before he nodded. "I need to see my girls."

"Alright. Let's make that happen," Thomas said. 

As they turned to head back towards the campsite, Liam saw they weren't alone and stopped in his tracks. 

"It's okay, Liam. They're with me. They helped me find you."

They started walking back up the hill again and quickly made it over to where T.C. and Rick had been waiting for them. 

"Guys, this is Liam. Liam, these are my friends Rick and T.C.," Thomas said, pointing to each of his friends in turn.

"Welcome home, Liam," T.C. said. Thomas noted that his friend didn't offer a hand to shake, likely to keep from overwhelming his client.

"Yeah, welcome home, brother," Rick said.

Liam nodded towards each of the guys, and Magnum could tell how awkward the situation was for everyone. He put a hand on Liam's shoulder, said "Let's go," and then nudged the younger man to start walking back towards where they’d left the cars. The four of them walked in silence with what almost happened hanging heavy over them. 

When they got back to the Ferrari, Thomas said, "Guys, I'm going to take Liam home. See you later?" 

"Sounds good, TM," T.C. said.

"We'll grab some dinner and meet you at your place," Rick added.

Thomas lifted a hand in acknowledgment as he sat down in the Ferrari. As he started the engine, he looked over at Liam and smiled. "Let's get you home to your wife and daughter."

He had to work hard at hiding the relief he felt when Liam nodded and returned the smile. It was a broken, yet genuine smile, but it gave Thomas hope that Liam would eventually make it through to the other side of his guilt and grief.

ooooooo

Dinner was a mostly quiet affair, none of the three of them speaking about much of anything of consequence. Rick told a story about the most recent karaoke night he'd held at La Mariana, one that Magnum had missed most of because he'd wanted to watch a Detroit Tigers game. T.C. talked about a couple who had been married for fifty years that had only taken a helicopter tour because the husband had broken a hip months ago and still wasn't cleared for skydiving.

Thomas thought about mentioning how Zeus and Apollo had trapped him up in a tree, and that he'd needed to call Higgins to call them off, but he didn't really feel like listening to the guys give him crap about it. He knew the incident would be revealed at some point, because Higgins seemed to love embarrassing him like that, so he decided to hold off. That way he'd only have to listen to the jokes once. 

Eventually, they were relaxing in the living room drinking their preferred beverages when Rick finally asked the question Thomas had been waiting for all evening.

"What happened out there between you and Liam?" 

Thomas took a sip of his beer and sighed. "It was close, man. I almost didn't talk him down."

"What did you say to him?" T.C. asked.

Magnum picked at the label of his beer for a moment or two before answering. "I told Liam about Aarash."

His best friends glanced towards each other briefly before turning towards him, their expressions clearly ones of confusion.

"Who?" they asked in near unison.

"Aarash. I told Liam about the interpreter who got sick and couldn't go out with us the morning of the mission that went FUBAR and we were captured. That him being left behind and spared from what we'd gone through was what helped me during the darkest days of our captivity."

"What are you talking about man?" T.C. asked. "We didn't ever have an interpreter in Afghanistan. You were our terp in that part of the world."

Thomas nodded. "Exactly."

"So, you lied to him," Rick said.

"No, I told him what he needed to hear."

"But–"

"You saw him put that pistol under his chin. I had to do something, say anything that would keep him from killing himself. I did what needed to be done to keep yet another family from Liam’s unit from mourning the loss of a loved one." 

"And it worked," T.C. said.

"Yeah. It did."

ooooooo

**Note:** I’ve read a few stories where Magnum knows how to speak one or more of the Middle Eastern dialects, so this story uses that premise. I’m sorry I can’t remember which stories or their authors, but I hope they don’t mind me using that idea as part of my premise for this chapter. 

ooooooo

**_Next time:_ ** _One Possible Truth_

**ooooooo**


	2. One Possible Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that each chapter is its own tag to episode 3.10. They all start the same, but then follow a different trajectory to the end. If you have the time, it would be great to know which one of the three was your favorite. 
> 
> **Warning** Mentions of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

**ooooooo**

"Some of the darkest days over there in that POW camp when I thought I wouldn't make it, what gave me hope was knowing that Aarash was spared." 

~~~~~ Thomas Magnum, 3.10 "The Long Way Home"

**ooooooo**

**Chapter Two: One Possible Truth**

When Magnum stepped back from the hug he'd shared with Liam, he said, "Are you ready to go home?"

Liam hesitated for only a moment before he nodded. "I need to see my girls."

"Alright. Let's make that happen," Thomas said. 

As they turned to head back towards the campsite, Liam saw they weren't alone and stopped in his tracks. 

"It's okay, Liam. They're with me. They helped me locate you."

They started walking back up the hill again and quickly made it over to where T.C. and Rick had been waiting for them. 

"Guys, this is Liam, these are my friends Rick and T.C.," Thomas said, pointing to each of his friends in turn.

"Welcome home, Liam," T.C. said. Thomas noted that his friend didn't offer a hand to shake, likely to keep from overwhelming his client.

"Yeah, welcome home, brother," Rick said.

Liam nodded towards each of the guys, and Magnum could tell how awkward the situation was for everyone. He put a hand on Liam's shoulder, said "Let's go," and then nudged the younger man to start walking back towards where they’d left the cars. The four of them walked in silence with what almost happened hanging heavy over them. 

When they got back to the Ferrari, Thomas said, "Guys, I'm going to take Liam home. See you later?" 

"Sounds good, TM," T.C. said.

"We'll grab some dinner and meet you at your place," Rick added.

Thomas lifted a hand in acknowledgment as he sat down in the Ferrari. As he started the engine, he looked over at Liam and smiled. "Let's get you home to your wife and daughter."

He had to work hard at hiding the relief he felt when Liam nodded and returned the smile. It was a broken, yet genuine smile, but it gave Thomas hope that Liam would eventually make it through to the other side of his guilt and grief.

ooooooo

Rick and T.C. had beaten him back to the guest house by quite a while. For dinner, they had picked up a couple of large pizzas that had been kept warm in his rarely-used oven. 

Magnum had grabbed a couple of slices, hungry and fully intending on eating them, but after the first couple of bites, he couldn't bring himself to finish them. He ended up mostly picking at his dinner, even though the pizza was from one of his favorite places to eat. 

His friends did most of the heavy lifting conversation-wise, and every once in a while he would see one of them send a supposedly surreptitious look of concern his way with the occasional check on the progress he’d made in eating. Or not eating, in his case. He loved his friends for being so worried about him, but there was really no need. He would be fine – eventually. 

The case with Liam had brought up some things that he rather wished had stayed buried. He was going to have to work hard at pushing the memories and feelings back into some dark recess of his mind. 

Thomas was happy that he had found Liam in time, that he managed to keep the younger man from killing himself. Happy that Erin and Bella would still have their husband and father in their lives. Yet, he couldn’t help feeling a little bit jealous that Liam had had someone to go home to when he hadn’t. 

He remembered when he’d still been in the hospital in Landstuhl and told that his mom had died while he’d been a POW. The loss had hit him particularly hard, and he’d been devastated. His mom had always been there for him, and he’d not been there for her when she’d needed him most. He was well aware that he’d had no choice in the matter, but the guilt was still there even after all this time. It had lessened, but he didn’t think it would ever completely go away. 

With his mom gone, he’d had no one to come home to and no real reason to go back to the place where he grew up. However, he did visit one last time before he had moved to Hawai’i. Like T.C. and Rick, Thomas had a routine when coming home on leave. 

Baseball had been in season at the time, so he was able to go to a Detroit Tigers game. And after…he’d visited his father’s grave. Except this time he hadn’t only visited his dad’s grave but his mom’s too. Thankfully, back when his dad had died, his mom had had the foresight to pay for the plot next to his. He didn’t think he would’ve been able to bear his parents not being laid to rest next to each other.

Originally, to get Liam to back down from killing himself, Magnum had considered mentioning his mom, and what it felt like to be left behind. That her last thoughts of him were ones of uncertainty, worry, and sorrow. That her only son might be dead. That things could be worse and he was being tortured or suffering in a hundred other ways. He'd thought to remind Liam that his wife and daughter were feeling many of the same things. Uncertainty, worry, and fear that their loved one might be dead.

His little voice ended up convincing him that particular story wouldn’t have helped Liam much, if at all. Instead, the younger man had needed to realize that his team would never want him to die because Liam had been lucky enough to not have been with them when that IED had gone off. They would’ve wanted Liam to live, and live without the guilt of being the only survivor of his unit. 

And that’s when he’d thought of Aarash. 

Aarash had been the best interpreter they’d ever had. Though they could’ve used the man’s talents on that disastrous day, and in the days after, Magnum had ultimately been happy that Aarash hadn’t been with them. Most likely his friend would’ve been killed instantly in retaliation for helping Americans. Knowing the man had been spared had given him a little bit of hope in his darkest days as a POW. 

His picked-over dinner plate being taken away startled him out of his dark thoughts. Thomas looked up to see Rick, who shrugged and smiled slightly, though he still looked concerned underneath it all. 

They grabbed some drinks and sat down, relaxing in the living room while enjoying the breeze coming up from the ocean. 

Thomas’s thoughts had begun to make their way back towards Aarash, when T.C. and Rick started talking about the case and how the day had ended. 

“What happened between you and Liam, brother?” T.C. asked. 

“When he put that pistol under his chin, I wasn’t sure you’d be able to talk him down,” Rick added as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. 

Magnum didn’t really want to talk about it, but on his way back to Robin’s Nest, he’d realized that the case had likely brought up difficult memories for all of them. His friends likely needed the debrief to make sure he was doing okay, and if he was honest with himself, he needed to know the same about them. 

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure I could do it either,” Thomas said. “For a moment, I couldn’t think of anything he’d want to hear.”—he took a sip of his beer—“What happened with my mom came to mind, but I knew right away that was the wrong tack to take.”

T.C. and Rick exchanged a sideways look, before the bigger man asked, “So, what did you end up saying to him?”

Magnum concentrated on picking at the label on his bottle of beer for several moments before he finally looked up and replied, “I told him about Aarash.”

Rick sat back. “He was a great guy. I miss how he used to make jokes about how messed up the English language can be."

“He knew backwards and forwards that one comedian dude’s* routine about how weird English can be." T.C. chuckled. "B-o-m-b. Bom*. T-o-m-b. Tom?”

“Nooo.” Rick interjected with a grin, but T.C. joined in to finish in unison, "toom*." 

His friends continued reciting what they still remembered of the comedy routine, causing him to chuckle for a moment before he suddenly sobered at the memories which had come back to the fore about Aarash.

Rick and T.C. must have noticed because a hand on his knee brought him out of his darkening thoughts. 

“What did you tell him about Aarash?” Rick asked. 

“I told him how Aarash getting sick and left behind that day kept him from being captured with us. That him being spared was that little bit of hope which helped me to carry on in my darkest days.”

T.C. nodded. “I know what you mean, brother.”

“Damn shame what happened to him,” Rick added. 

Thomas acknowledged that comment by finishing off his beer. 

He got up to get another, and as he walked towards the kitchen, his thoughts strayed back to when they’d been informed about what had happened to their favorite interpreter. 

After being cleared of any possible wrongdoing, Aarash had helped in the search for the four of them. When it had finally been called off, the interpreter had been assigned to a different team. 

On his first mission out with his new team, they had taken heavy fire. A bullet had hit the interpreter in the neck, and Aarash had been dead before the medic could get to him. 

ooooooo

**Chapter Notes** :

\-- The comedian whose routine was mentioned is Gallagher. He is probably more well known for the smashing watermelons part of his routine, but I think his bits about the English language are funnier. Various versions of the routine I quoted can be found on YouTube (recommended version: the one where he's wearing a dark blue v-neck sweater).

\--The spellings of "bom" and "toom" are both intentional, meant to represent the pronunciation of both words in that context.

**Bonus Quote** : "Why should I be serious about the language, if the language isn’t serious enough to make sense?” ~~~ Gallagher.

ooooooo

**_Next time:_ ** _A Different Truth_

**ooooooo**


	3. A Different Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A final reminder that each chapter is its own tag. They all start the same, but then follow a different trajectory to the end. If you have the time, it would be great to know which one of the three was your favorite. Thanks!
> 
> **Warning** Mentions of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

**ooooooo**

"Some of the darkest days over there in that POW camp when I thought I wouldn't make it, what gave me hope was knowing that Aarash was spared." 

~~~~~ Thomas Magnum, 3.10 "The Long Way Home"

**ooooooo**

**Chapter Three: A Different Truth**

When Magnum stepped back from the hug he'd shared with Liam, he said, "Are you ready to go home?"

Liam hesitated for only a moment before he nodded. "I need to see my girls."

"Alright. Let's make that happen," Thomas said. 

As they turned to head back towards the campsite, Liam saw they weren't alone and stopped in his tracks. 

"It's okay, Liam. They're with me. They helped me locate you."

They started walking back up the hill again and quickly made it over to where T.C. and Rick had been waiting for them. 

"Guys, this is Liam, these are my friends Rick and T.C.," Thomas said, pointing to each of his friends in turn.

"Welcome home, Liam," T.C. said. Thomas noted that his friend didn't offer a hand to shake, likely to keep from overwhelming his client.

"Yeah, welcome home, brother," Rick said.

Liam nodded towards each of the guys, and Magnum could tell how awkward the situation was for everyone. He put a hand on Liam's shoulder, said "Let's go," and then nudged the younger man to start walking back towards where they’d left the cars. The four of them walked in silence with what almost happened hanging heavy over them. 

When they got back to the Ferrari, Thomas said, "Guys, I'm going to take Liam home. See you later?" 

"Sounds good, TM," T.C. said.

"We'll grab some dinner and meet you at your place," Rick added.

Thomas lifted a hand in acknowledgment as he sat down in the Ferrari. As he started the engine, he looked over at Liam and smiled. "Let's get you home to your wife and daughter."

He had to work hard at hiding the relief he felt when Liam nodded and returned the smile. It was a broken, yet genuine smile, but it gave Thomas hope that Liam would eventually make it through to the other side of his guilt and grief.

ooooooo

Dinner was a mostly quiet affair, the three men not speaking much, and what little they did talk about wasn’t anything of consequence. Instead, it seemed he wasn’t the only one whose thoughts were centered on their various tours and what it was like to come home in between them. 

Thomas thought about how both Rick and T.C. had coming home rituals. That going to the movies or the art museum helped them remember who they were when they were away from home and serving their country. 

For Thomas, his coming home routine had always depended on what time of the year it was. If it was baseball season, he would always make sure to go to at least one Detroit Tigers game. Regardless of the season, Thomas would always do two things: visit his dad’s grave and spend time with his mom. Usually, spending time with his mom took the form of helping her to cook one of his favorite meals and then eat it together. It was oddly appropriate that he was winding down from his latest case by eating dinner with those he considered family. He pushed how much he suddenly missed his mom to the back of his mind.

They were relaxing in the living room drinking their preferred beverages when T.C. finally asked the question he'd been waiting for all evening.

“What happened out there with Liam, TM?” 

Magnum forced himself to breathe normally. “For a minute there, when Liam put the gun under his chin, I had no idea what to say to him. I thought…”—he shook his head—“And then Aarash came to mind.”

“Great guy. Love his sense of humor,” Rick said before grinning and taking a drink of his beer. 

T.C. nodded and added, “The best interpreter we ever had.”

“Yep,” Thomas said. “He risked a lot for us by being our interpreter. His safety. Retaliation from his countrymen.”

“So glad he wasn’t with us that day. They would’ve killed him on the spot,” T.C. said.

“That’s basically what I told Liam,” Magnum said before getting up and heading towards the kitchen for another bottle of beer. He gestured to his friends, and they both shook their heads, declining his silent offer to get them another drink. 

When he returned to his seat, he continued, “I told him that I knew how it felt. That despite the fact that I’d— _we’d_ —been captured… Knowing that Aarash had been spared the hell we went through was often a source of hope on my darkest days. That Liam’s team would never want him to kill himself just because he’d lived and they hadn’t.”

“No they wouldn’t,” T.C. murmured. 

“It’s not going to be an easy adjustment,” Rick added. 

Magnum tipped his beer towards his friends in agreement of their words and then shrugged. “I told him if he ever needed anything…”

“Totally,” Rick said. “You should invite him out to La Mariana.”

“Now that’s a great idea,” T.C. said before looking at Rick. “We could also…”

Thomas mostly tuned out at that point, not listening to what his friends had started planning. 

Instead, his mind wandered back to Aarash. When they were in the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany and finally able to put more than two thoughts together, they’d asked what had become of Aarash and whether they could get in contact with him. 

They’d learned that after being cleared of possibly betraying his team, Aarash had been allowed to try and help find the four of them using his language skills to gather intel. That the man had continued to be an interpreter after the search for his team had been called off. 

He smiled at the memory of the video chat they’d eventually had with Aarash. How overjoyed the man had been to learn they had escaped and were alive. Since then, they’d kept in touch via email, and—

“Hey, Tommy,” Rick said. “What’s got you smiling over there?”

ooooooo

**_The end._ **

**ooooooo**

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the inspiration for this fic came from a particular scene between Erin, Kimberly, and a witness during the Blue Bloods episode 11.08 "More Than Meets the Eye."
> 
> ***Military Crisis Hotline: 1.800.273.TALK, press 1.***
> 
> Many thanks to Celticgal1041 for proofing. Any remaining mistakes are my fault. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> *Please do not repost or use this or any of my other works on another site or app without my knowledge or consent. FanFiction and Archive of Our Own are the only two sites (as AZGirl on both) where my fiction should be posted. Thank you!


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